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An artist's impression of Rhea's rings. The density of the particles is exaggerated greatly to aid visibility. [1] Rhea, the second-largest moon of Saturn, may have a tenuous ring system consisting of three narrow, relatively dense bands within a particulate disk. This would be the first discovery of rings around a moon.
The actual semi-major axis differs by 19 km, and the actual mass is 8.6 × 10 −12 of Saturn's. The moon was later found within 1° of the predicted position. The search was undertaken by considering all Voyager 2 images and using a computer calculation to predict whether the moon would be visible under sufficiently favorable conditions in ...
It is estimated that the A Ring contains 7,000–8,000 propellers larger than 0.8 km in size and millions larger than 0.25 km. [4] In April 2014, NASA scientists reported the possible consolidation of a new moon within the A Ring, implying that Saturn's present moons may have formed in a similar process in the past when Saturn's ring system was ...
The faint Pallene ring is visible at the bottom left as indicated. In 2006, images taken in forward-scattered light by the Cassini spacecraft enabled the Cassini Imaging Team to discover a faint dust ring around Saturn that shares Pallene's orbit, now named the Pallene Ring. [11] [12] The ring has a radial extent of about 2,500 km. Its source ...
In the course of the ongoing mission, Porco and her team have discovered seven moons of Saturn: Methone and Pallene, [17] Polydeuces, [18] Daphnis, [19] Anthe, [20] Aegaeon, [21] and a small moonlet in the outer B ring. [22] They also found several new rings, such as rings coincident with the orbits of Atlas, Janus and Epimetheus (the Saturnian ...
The close proximity to the orbits of Pallene and Methone suggests that these moons may form a dynamical family. Material blasted off Anthe by micrometeoroid impacts is thought to be the source of the Anthe Ring Arc, a faint partial ring about Saturn co-orbital with the moon first detected in June 2007. [6] [7]
The moon was named in 2006 after Daphnis, a shepherd, pipes player, and pastoral poet in Greek mythology; [8] he was descendant of the Titans, after whom the largest moons of Saturn are named. Both Daphnis and Pan, the only other known shepherd moon to orbit within Saturn's main rings, are named for mythological figures associated with shepherds.
During planning for its extended missions, various future plans for Cassini were evaluated on the basis of scientific value, cost, and time. [3] [7] Some of the options examined included collision with Saturn atmosphere, an icy satellite, or rings; another was departure from Saturn orbit to Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, or a centaur.